Product to overlay MacBook Pro Touch Bar with physical keys

Solution 1:

One solution (albeit, a bit of a hack) that I found is to place a wireless magic keyboard over the top of the built-in laptop keyboard.

If you place it in the right spot, it doesn't press the underlying keys (although see Karabiner information below to stop this issue).

As someone who despises the low action of the butterfly keys, this has the double benefit: (1) it restores traditional escape and function keys, and (2) it provides the awesome keyboard experience of the magic keyboard. It also means that you can use the trackpad.

It can also help to use Karabiner to disable the built-in keyboard when external keyboards are plugged in. This overcomes the problem of accidentally activating the keyboard underneath when pressing firmly on the magic keyboard. For details on how to do this, see this post: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/235266/11747 That said, I'm not a big fan of virtual keyboards, as I worry that they induce lag.

Solution 2:

I'm looking for the exact same thing but I haven't really found anything. What I thought of was maybe to get a few mobile phone game controllers that you stick on the screen like this:

But you probably can't close your MBP with those buttons attached so you'd need to remove them/set them up all the time. I do wish someone makes a control strip version of that.

PS Here's a link to the game controller: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AROMN8G